"Julian May - The Golden Torc" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

aspect of her metapsychic latency she had used during her
athletic career), and a small knife that had escaped detection.
Felice broke the chains holding her Group Green friends and
those of four other prisoners. Then Richard, disguised in Amer-ie's
religious robes, was able to stab the officer of the guard
to death. Meanwhile, Felice mentally coerced the caravan's
ferocious bear-dog escort, forcing the animals to attack the
other soldiers and Epone. A wild fracas ensued, in which the
freed prisoners, together with the mind-controlled bear-dogs,
killed not only the rest of the soldiers, but the Tanu Epone as
well..In the moment of triumph, Felice sought to take Epone's
golden torc, knowing it would release the latent metafunctions
heretofore imprisoned within her brain. But a half-crazed time-traveler
threw the device into a lake, where it sank in deep water.
Felice was prevented from murdering the interfering man only
when Amerie administered a powerful sedative from her medical
kit, causing the little athlete to fall unconscious.
Bewildered and frightened, the ex-prisoners realized that
telepathic news of the attack must have been flashed by the
dying Epone. Most of the escapees elected to follow the moun-tain-
climbing Oxford don, Basil Wimborne, who proposed to
lead them in small boats across the prehistoric Lac de Bresse
to safety in the high Jura. Claude, wilderness-wise from ex-peditions
on wild planets of the Galactic Milieu, demurred. He
advised taking to the forests of the adjacent Vosges Mountains,
where it would be difficult for gray-torcs on chalikoback to
pursue them. Only Richard and Amerie agreed to follow him,
taking the still-unconscious Felice along.
From a high ridge, the four members of Group Green saw
gray-torc boats in pursuit of their former companions. That
evening, Amerie felt herself strangely attracted by Felice's
violent behavior, which seemed to reflect some dark shadow
within her own conventional spirituality.
While crossing a torrent on the following day, Amerie fell
and broke her arm. The others made camp and tried to decide
what to do. Felice seemed to take for granted that they would
all lead a guerilla existence, harassing other caravans in the
hope of getting another golden torc. Richard received this no-tion
with scorn. The only sensible thing was to make for the
sea, away from the regions that the Tanu were known to inhabit.
Claude, knowing that Richard was right, but troubled at leaving
the impetuous girl behind on her own, went off into the quiet
woods to think. After burying his late wife's ashes, he fell
asleep, waking at evening to find that a tiny Pliocene cat with
illusions of domesticity insisted upon accompanying him back
to camp. The cat, Claude felt, would be a valuable distraction
for Amerie, who was becoming morbidly preoccupied with
Felice.
Man and pet returned to camp to find that all trace of the
others had vanished. Fearfully, Claude went up the riverside